


Forever Young

by missthingsplace



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Gen, M/M, One Shot, Ratings: G
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 13:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missthingsplace/pseuds/missthingsplace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p> Set straight after 'Something Borrowed', Ianto follows Jack back to the hub for a heart to heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forever Young

**Title:** Forever Young  
 **Author:** [](http://missthingsplace.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://missthingsplace.livejournal.com/)**missthingsplace**   
**Parings/characters:** Jack/Ianto  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Torchwood or any of the characters ... unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while.   
**Summary:**  Set straight after 'Something Borrowed', Ianto follows Jack back to the hub for a heart to heart.  
 **Warnings:** Angst  
 **Spoilers:** Anything is fair game  
 **Rating:** G  
  
 **A/N:**  This fic came about because of a song that's playing at work - Forever Young by Madness - and it sent the bunnies a hopping - a good thing believe me - and inspired this but it's not a song fic, i just stole the title.  
 

Ianto silently cursed the sirens that announced his arrival and made his way through the hub, stopping only briefly for a moment or two to survey the confetti that lay scattered across the floor.

  
 

Jack was exactly where he knew he would be, he could see him in his office through the open blinds where he sat at his desk looking at something in his hand and made he way straight up there.

  
 

“I told you to go home, get some sleep,” Jack told him, turning his head to look at the younger man with a small smile on his lips.

  
 

“I had the feeling that you were coming back here to brood,” Ianto remarked, removing his coat and draping it over the back of the chair opposite Jack. “are you going to tell me what's on your mind? You went rather quiet at the wedding reception, memories?”

  
 

Jack nodded and handed Ianto the photograph he was still holding in his fingers.

  
 

“She's beautiful,” Ianto told him, studying the old sepia picture.

  
 

“She was,” Jack answered sadly. “we met in the late nineteenth century, she never knew I worked for Torchwood or any of my secrets, she died believing that I had been killed in an explosion.”

  
 

“No children?” Ianto asked tentatively.

  
 

“No, she wanted them desperately and I thought it was the least I could do, give her a child,” Jack explained. “but it wasn't meant to be and after we'd been together for fifteen years I knew it was time to part … it broke my heart to leave her but ...”

  
 

“She would have started to get suspicious about you not ageing?” Ianto finished for him and he got another nod in reply.

  
 

“There have been so many, I give my heart to someone and each time I think it'll be easier,” Jack admitted. “but it's not, it never is.”

  
 

“And yet you still put yourself through it, them through it?” Ianto asked quietly. “Am I going to suffer the same fate, find you gone one day or will you just retcon me so I forget you completely?”

  
 

“You know all my secrets Ianto, there's no need for me to run away from you,” Jack told him.

  
 

“All your secrets?” Ianto asked, gesturing towards the other photographs on the Captains desk and moving around it to stand beside him.

  
 

“This was Estelle,” Jack said softly, handing him the fading photograph. 

  
 

“The woman the faeries ...” Ianto trailed off at seeing the sadness in his lovers eyes.

  
 

“Yeah, she thought I was my own son,” Jack answered quietly, almost guiltily. “I never stopped loving her, I always watched over her but in the end I couldn't save her when she needed me most.”

  
 

“You did your best Jack, you warned her what they could do,” Ianto told him, reaching out to stroke his fingers down his lover cheek. 

  
 

“I should have done more,” Jack told him, wiping away the lone tear that escaped from his right eye and slid down his cheek.

  
 

“Tell me about the others?” Ianto encouraged him.

  
 

Jack picked up a photo of a handsome young man wearing an RAF uniform.

  
 

“This was George, we barely had time to realise that our secret late night fumblings actually meant more to us than just sex when he was shot down over the English Channel,” Jack told him, gulping down the small sob that was building within him. “he died without ever knowing just how much he meant to me.”

  
 

“I'm sure he knew,” Ianto replied, reaching for another photo, this time a young woman holding a little girl on her lap.

  
 

“Her name was Lucia , she worked for Torchwood,” Jack told him. “our relationship should never have happened, we didn't part on good terms.”

  
 

“What happened to her? Death by Torchwood?” Ianto asked curiously.

  
 

“No, she left,” Jack answered. “she only died a few years ago, natural causes.”

  
 

“And the little girl?” Ianto pushed, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

  
 

“Alice,” Jack told him and Ianto could see more than a little regret in his eyes. “her real name was Melissa but she changed it … I barely saw her for years, she has a child of her own now.”

  
 

“You're a grandfather?” Ianto blurted out in disbelief.

  
 

“I know, I don't look old enough!” Jack exclaimed with a wide grin that quickly faded. 

  
 

“What's his name?” Ianto asked. “Do you have a photo?”

  
 

Jack rifled though the small pile of photographs and handed one of a small child, maybe aged around a year old and handed it to him.

  
 

“Stephen,” Jack told him. “I don't get to see him as often as I like, he thinks I'm his uncle.”

  
 

“I'm sorry,” Ianto told him. 

  
 

“You have no need to be,” Jack assured him. “my immortality is a curse that only I can bear, to be forever young in the eyes of others. Perhaps one day I'll come to terms with it and put falling in love to the back of my mind.”

  
 

“No!” Ianto told him a little more sharply that he planned. “Never do that Jack, to love and to be in love is part of life, I never want to imagine you alone. ”

  
 

“You're not going to leave me any time soon are you?” Jack asked him softly. “I don't think I'm ready for my heart to be broken again just yet?”

  
 

“If I have my way you'll be taking care of me in my dotage,” Ianto smiled softly. “when my hair is grey and my face is all wrinkled.”

  
 

“You'll be forever young to me, even if you live until you're a hundred!” Jack retorted, taking the photographs from his lovers hand and putting them on the desk before getting to his feet and pulling him into his embrace.

  
 

“Kiss me,” Ianto told him, looking deep into the Captains eyes. 

  
 

They fluttered closed when his lovers lips met his in a tender kiss, arms winding tightly around each others bodies like they never wanted to let go.

  
 

The End.  
 

  



End file.
